A native New Yorker, John Kochman lived in Paris for 25 years before becoming Executive Direcor of Unifrance USA. John was Head of International Sales at MK2 Productions from 1990-1995, and Deputy Head of International Sales at StudioCanal from1995-2006. He has had extensive experience selling European and American film rights to distributors in the US and around the world. Bijan Tehrani: John, please tell me briefly about the background of the French Film Office. John Kochman: Unifrance USA has been in existence for about 40 years. Unifrance is headquartered in Paris, it’s an association of about 600 film professionals, producers,…
Author: Bijan Tehrani
Rare Bird is true story of a boy who helped ï¬nd a bird believed extinct for over 300 years. This against all odds story about a struggle for survival takes a dramatic turn, when the bird faces a greater threat. Ravaged by a hurricane what will they do to save the species once again from oblivion? Bermudian ï¬lmmaker, Lucinda Spurling has spent the last several years in her home country pursuing her first feature documentary, Rare Bird. After graduating with a degree in Communications from Tulane University, she worked as a journalist before attending Bristol University (Bristol, UK) where she…
Eric Matthies is Producer, Cinematographer and one of the Directors of Ayamye*. Currently he is an award winning producer and director specializing in documentaries, video installations and special features for DVD’s. Between 1986 and 1994, Eric was a cameraman with the seminal production company H-Gun, shooting notable music videos for artists such as Nine Inch Nails, De La Soul, Public Enemy and Soundgarden. As a young director he received recognition from The Chicago International Film Festival for his work with the legendary band Suicidal Tendencies. After many years of helping other directors realize their visions, Ayamye* is proudly his first…
“The Passion of the Mao” begins by correcting misconceptions about Mao’s early years. Unlike the tyrants with whom he is usually compared, Mao was a successful scholar and businessman before he became a rabble-rouser. By the mid1950s, he had unified China, spurred an impressive rate of growth, restructured the education system, and improved living standards. Then he became a Maoist. Mao devoted the rest of his life to eliminating the centralized Soviet bureaucracy he and his colleagues had built. The film takes viewers back to the 1960s. Successful women and men, some now professors at major universities in the West,…
Nurbek Egen, a filmmaker from Kyrgyzstan, graduated from the Institute of Art in Bishkek and then went to VGIK to study film direction. Nurbek started his career as a film director by making two short films and a documentary. “The Wedding Chest” is Nurbek’s first feature film. Wedding Chest is the story of Aidar who has left his Kirghiz mountain village and now lives in Paris with his French girlfriend, Isabelle. Aidar takes Isabelle for a visit to his home town. Aidar has changed but everything at home has remained the same. The relatives and neighbors are just as he…
A conventional review of the film Ahlaam is almost impossible. Ahlaam is more than just a movie; it is an anatomy of an open wound. It is about the ongoing pain of a nation and made by a film crew that has been shot at, injured, imprisoned, kidnapped, and tortured. Amazingly, the struggles endured by the filmmakers parallel those plaguing the Iraqi people. How could I complain about the filmmaking issues in Ahlaam when the creation and completion of the film is a feat within itself? A comparison makes it a lot easier to understand: Michael Moore created Fahrenheit 911…
Bijan Tehrani: Please tell us about the history of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and how you got involved with it? Roger Durling: The film festival has been around for 22 years. I took over four years ago when the festival was floundering and it was in dire straits financially. What we did was position the festival smack in the middle of Awards season. The festival now opens two days after the Academy award nominations are announced. Four years ago, we hosted Peter Jackson and Charlize THeron a month before they were to be crowned at the Oscars –…
Claudia Llosa, director of Madeinusa, was born in Lima in 1976 and now lives in Spain. Her first feature film Madeinusa has been praised in several international film festivals. Madeinusa is the story of a fourteen years old girl who lives in a remote small town. Film starts when this deeply religious town starts to celebrate odd two days holidays. The holidays start on Good Friday at three o’clock in the afternoon (just when Christ dies on the Cross) to Easter Sunday. The whole village believes that the God is dead during those two days and they are allowed to…
Danièle Thompson, the French film director and screenplay writer, is daughter of Gerard Oury, a film director and Jacqueline Roman, an actress. La Grande Vadrouille (1966) was her first movie as a writer. In the seventies, Danièle and Marcel Jullian worked together to write nine screenplays that were directed by Gerard Oury, Daniele’s father. In 1975, she wrote the script for Jean-Charles Tacchella’s Cousin, Cousine together with him and this movie was nominated for an Academy Award. After working on comedies for television in the eighties, she wrote a number of dramas that were directed by Claude Pinoteau. In the…
I met Lagan Sebert, a young publicist, at AFI FEST 2006. Lagan did such a great job helping journalist that we decided to introduce him to our readers. CWB: Please tell us about your AFI FEST experience and how you felt working with the media? Lagan: AFI Fest 2006 presented by Audi was a great experience for me. It is a very international festival with equal parts glamour and substance. One great thing about AFI Fest is that it brings out everyone from some of the largest news networks in the world to the smaller on-line and foreign language press.…